Ten Black Roses
by Full Shadow Alchemist
Summary: UlquiHime songfic to the song by the Rasmus.


**Anime/Manga: Bleach**

**Song: Ten**** Black Roses**

**Artist: The Rasmus**

**A/N: ****The story doesn't suit the song AT ALL. Oh well, I think it suits them perfectly. Not the story though. Quite honestly, I was not on crack when I wrote this. I was just in a state of mind that crack encourages if you take it. It's my first songfic AND my first UlquiHime. Enjoy peeps.**

**Ten Black Roses**

It was cold. So very cold. Hueco Mundo at first glance would be assumed to be at a constant, unbearable heat. Completely wrong. The desert was freezing at night and here it was always night. It was the worst place for someone who defines life and light to spend the rest of her life, but this is the unfortunate fate of Orihime Inoue.

This spectacular girl had the power to reject time itself. She can reverse objects to a state of being before whatever calamity befell them. If something broke, she could fix it. If someone died, she could revive them. It was a wonderful power she had been gifted with. It was the reason she would never see her home again.

Shivering slightly, she wrapped her arms protectively around herself. It was futile. There was no curtain to cover the barred window with to block out the cold wind. She had no covers to wrap around herself either. She didn't even have a decent bed. Scratch that. She didn't even _have_ a bed, just a cold couch to sleep on. She's certain there are rings under her eyes.

_Life is like a boat in the bottle  
Try to sail, You can't with no air  
Day by day it only gets harder  
Try to scream but nobody cares  
_

The door opened without an introduction. It was completely unnecessary considering that only one person ever visited.

"Your food is here, woman." Ulquiorra stated. The Arrancar that followed after him limped as he pushed the trolley from a past injury. Not terribly surprising, considering that a war had been fought just a number of uncountable days.

Soul Society lost.

It was that simple. Soul Society lost, her friends died and she was here. Forever. Never to leave. Never to see the sun. Never to laugh. Never to love and be loved again.

One thing remained.

Ulquiorra never failed to deliver her food and water when she needed it. While he never replied, she ranted about nothing. He listened and that was enough to keep her sane. For now at least. One day she would lose that too.

But maybe going insane wouldn't be so bad? She wouldn't be aware of her surroundings as well as now. Her reckless actions wouldn't be punished harshly because of her well known lack of sense. She might even hallucinate her friends and talk to them! It was times like this she considered becoming an Arrancar herself.

_Through the glass you see the same faces  
Hear the voices fade like they're drowned  
When your life's a boat in a bottle  
You're surrounded, drifting alone _

She would dismiss the thought almost the second she considered it. She could never become like them, even if it would stop the aching numbness she felt now. The emptiness her friends' deaths left. Besides, the idea had already been discussed by Aizen and his Espada but was rejected outright by Ulquiorra. The fourth Espada claimed that if she were to become one of them, her powers would work at a less proficiency rate than they already were.

Orihime thought there was another reason, and she's sure Aizen knows the reason was well. She never bothered asking. She wouldn't get an answer. She never did before, so why would she get one now?

But it didn't matter. What mattered was that he was there at all. He never said much, but he listened. It was more than what Ichigo had done for her. So maybe, just maybe…

_Don't leave me now  
Stay another day  
With me  
_

She ate obediently. If Ulquiorra asked something of her, she did it. Besides Aizen, he was the only one she ever needed to listen to.

"Remember," he had said, "you belong to Aizen first, then to me. You have no reason to listen to the commands of anyone else."

Orihime heeded those words. They were the first she ever did to the likes of the Espada. Why had such a change of heart come by? Why did she listen to him? Why did she always watch him out of the corner of her eye? And why did he do the same? She wanted to know. She _needed_ to know. Chances were she wouldn't though.

_When you're sad, and no-one knows it  
I'll send you black roses  
When your heart's dark and frozen  
I'll send you black roses  
_

She had developed loyalty to Ulquiorra. When, how and why eluded her completely, but she at least knew where she figured it out, who had made it known and what this could potentially lead to.

Ironically enough, it had been Loli and Menoly when they visited her room so long ago. They had clearly been jealous of her, but for what? They said she was getting too much attention. From who? She only ever saw Ulquiorra on a daily basis…

Oh. _Oh. _That was it, wasn't it? They thought she and Ulquiorra were an "item". At the time they weren't but…

_Far away we wait for each other  
I'm still on that road to nowhere  
Kiss yourself for me in the mirror  
Tie a black rose into your hair_

He did seem to care now. About her, that is. She wasn't trash. She was useful, she was strong. Then again, she had seemed to come to follow Aizen out of her free will now, but that was because Ulquiorra seemed interesting. The paint on his face looked like tears so that meant maybe, just maybe, he had lived a harsh life? She didn't know.

She just didn't know.

But did it really matter? With Ulquiorra, things just seemed to stop p mattering. It was like he was everything real now. Maybe he was the sanest? More than she? Hard to believe, but it was defiantly possible.

_Don't lose your faith  
Share another night  
With me  
_

If she ever did something wrong, he was the one to let her know. If he spoke too long about why it was wrong, she would threaten to revolt against Aizen. At first he took her seriously, but after some time when nothing happened, he accepted it as a joke. Orihime even saw him smile slightly once.

For whatever reason, she felt giddy for a week.

He seemed in tune with her emotions. If she was happy (or at least close to it), he didn't necessarily smile but a strange light entered his eyes. When she was angry, he reasoned her out of the feud. When she was sad, his presence was enough to comfort her. Somehow that was completely wrong though.

Weren't Arrancar supposed to be scary?

_When you're sad and no-one knows it  
I'll send you black roses  
When your heart's dark and frozen  
I'll send you black roses_

Well, Ulquiorra wasn't the traditional Halloween scary. There was a darkness about him that was more frightening than the biggest, most sadistical grin Adjucas of varying strength sent her way all the time. Back when he actually frightened her even Nnoitra had nothing on him.

The fear was all but gone by the time she had had the courage to slap him.

_Ten Black roses_  
_Ten Black roses_

The air had been still after she had slapped him.

Now of course, thinking back, it seemed something closer to a threshold for their new possibilities. They could have never built a good and productive relationship if she was scared to death just by the appearance of her protector. When she lost that fear, she lost any kind of doubt in her mind of Ulquiorra ever harming her.

_Life is like a boat in the bottle  
Try to sail, you can't with no air  
Day by day it only gets harder  
Try to scream but nobody cares_

Aizen had removed any need of her in Las Noches for a time. If he had truly felt anything bitter towards her, he would have exacted revenge against her in that moment. Rather, he let her live, and now did Orihime realize that no matter the outcome of the battle, she would have lived.

Lived with someone she loved.

_When you're sad, and no-one knows it  
I'll send you black roses  
When your heart's dark and frozen  
I'll send you black Roses _

"Orihime-san," he said. She smiled. She wasn't "woman" to him when they were alone. "Are you going to eat your meal? I do not wish to have to force you to eat your meals."

"There will be no need for that, Ulquiorra!" She smiled brightly. "You can hand feed me anyways if you like though." She added mischievously.

"Don't be ridiculous." He answered coolly, but his eyes lightened in amusement. She laughed in response, and ate her food.

Who needed a prince to save her anyways?

_Ten black roses_


End file.
